Nick Mulvey is a singer-songwriter from London. Formerly a member of acclaimed jazz group Portico Quartet, he left in 2011 to pursue a solo career. He releases his new single Cucurucu on March 3, the same day he begins a nationwide tour. He chats about French cockerels, original ideas, and going it alone

WHAT ARE YOU DOING TODAY?

I’ve just moved into a new flat, so I’m mainly unpacking boxes and moving things around. Other than that, I’m getting ready to release Cucurucu. It’s out the first week of March, but the video is out now and it’s been played on the radio, so people can hear it and it feels like it’s out already.

ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE SONG?

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I am really happy with the way it worked out. It’s got a big arrangement and there were times when recording it that I had to stop what was happening because I didn’t want it to become too big and epic. But because of the melody, I think as soon as the drums and other instruments kicked in, it just took off.

WHAT DOES CUCURUCU MEAN?

It’s meaningless. It’s meant to be a noise a child would make. It might relate to a bird sound too. It’s actually quite similar to the noise they make in France for a cockerel. You know how we say ‘cock-a-doodle-do’? Over there it’s like that Cucurucu. When I play gigs in France I get lots of smiles and to start with I didn’t know why. I was pretty embarrassed, but I’ve just got to live with it.

WHEN DID YOU WRITE THE SONG?

It’s been going on for a long time. At its core it’s my adaptation of DH Lawrence’s poem Piano. The poem depicts a child under the piano, smiling as its mother sings, so I thought it would be lovely to have a song within the song. So I’m singing in her voice, really, and then I got the chorus about ‘yearning to belong’, so it’s not just putting his words to my music. At first I was bothered by that, because I didn’t think I should’ve changed it, but I’ve got used to it.

IT’S OK TO BORROW LYRICS FROM POEMS?

I think so, as long as it’s done with integrity. Bruce Springsteen borrows from folk songs and has talked about it a lot. It’s true to life, in an important way. Originality is for people with short memories, you’re deluded if you think you’re having an original idea. It’s about fresh perspective and doing something different with your influences.

DID YOU KNOW YOU’D GO SOLO WHEN YOU WERE IN PORTICO QUARTET?

I did, yeah, and I had my own music on the back burner while the band were doing well. We were nominated for the Mercury Prize so that made things really busy. My own music had a long gestation, as a result, and it was always a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’ I’d leave the band. Not to say I was thinking about it all the time, and the first four years of my six in that band, it never came up. I had no confidence and didn’t think I could go on my own. Plus, I really, really enjoyed being in that band.

WHAT CHANGED THEN?

I don’t think I was creatively satisfied after a while. I wasn’t playing my primary instrument - I play guitar, but used to play the hang, (a melodic, percussion instrument similar to a steel drum) in Portico Quartet - so I felt a bit frustrated by that. In the end, I didn’t have a choice about leaving the band and going solo, I just had to. I knew I had to make a change, and that it would take two or three years to release something as a solo artist. We were about to start recording the third album, so that was the perfect time for me to leave.

WHAT WAS IT LIKE RELEASING YOUR FIRST EP?

It felt a bit like a personal victory, although I was very nervous. I had made a lot of music in isolation, so it’s hard to tell. When I was in the band, the four of us would be able to tell if something was good, just because four is enough opinions, but when you’re on your own there’s more doubt and it’s harder to tell. Engineers and producers I’ve worked with always say nice things about what I’ve made, but you never know if that’s just because they feel they have to.

WHERE ARE YOU UP TO WITH YOUR DEBUT ALBUM?

It’s finished. I recorded it in September with producer Dan Carey, and I think it’ll be out before the festivals start, so maybe June. It feels a long way off, but then I thought I would’ve made the album a long time ago. And even though it was made in September, it was two years in the making before that, writing, demoing, performing and so on.